Thursday, February 23, 2006

Jack Bogdanski In First Major “Nice Week” Test

Today’s article in the Oregonian about more funding woes for the South Waterfront project is the kind of thing Jack Bogdanski would tear apart like a Great White shark on a seal pup. What Jack would have done to that article is the reason they’ve outlawed fox hunting in England. Unfortunately for us, he’s in a self-imposed Nice Week, and several things have become apparent: 1. We really do need him and his team of comment wonks to put things in perspective around here. And 2. Being nice is a real challenge sometimes. Let me take a fast pass at what the article says: If you think the aerial tram funding was shaky, it was like the Rock of Gibraltar compared to the rest of the project. The new $101.9 million dollar price tag is double what backers have pledged and nobody knows where the rest is coming from. That means the amenities that helped sell this turkey will be trimmed back like a new haircut on a military recruit. Among the classic Oregonian lines: “some stakeholders and observers have grown anxious about progress and funding toward the full vision.”Oh, really!!!!! And by “full vision” they mean the load of BS used to sell this thing to begin with. There’s also this beauty: “Total cost estimates are likely to grow…”But let’s be fair: That’s only if the sun comes up tomorrow. Here’s my prediction for how this will end. At some point, it will turn out this contaminated site had an old graveyard on it, and bodies will begin popping up like toast. Eventually everyone will flee. Yes, that is the Portland Freelancer prediction: These maniacs won’t be done till this thing morphs into a sequel from Poltergeist and turns all of Portland into one big horror show.

5 Comments:

To be fair, though, some of the cost increase should be recaptured when the tax increments kick. It stands to reason that if the cost of amenities goes up, assessed valuation will go up when the project is completed.